Bumbershoot
Fest's literary lineup: a hootenanny for wide-ranging tastes

By Michael Upchurch
Seattle Times book critic

LISA PURDY Matt Briggs and fellow Clear Cut Press writers Stacey Levine and Charles D'Ambrosio will read from their forthcoming books at 8:30 tonight.

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Politics, literary experiment and comic-book "madness" will dominate Bumbershoot's 2004 literary lineup. The four days of book festivities include panel discussions, individual readings, interviews, open-mike sessions and exhibits. By the looks of it, everything from esoteric wordplay to anti-Iraq-war moral outrage will be covered.

Here, in order of appearance, are some of the highlights:

Today

"What's Right? Comics and Censorship," Living Room Stage, 6 p.m.: Robin Fisher, a comics journalist, editor and activist, explores "the many faces of censorship in the comics world," with special attention to the challenges facing comic-strip artists in the wake of Sept. 11 and the Patriot Act.

Peter Bagge, Starbucks Literary Stage, 7:15 p.m.: The popular Seattle graphic novelist gives a presentation from his "semi-autobiographical" serial, "Hate."

Clear Cut Press Shindig, Starbucks Literary Stage, 8:30 p.m.: Three writers — Matt Briggs, Charles D'Ambrosio and Stacey Levine — from Astoria's venturesome Clear Cut Press read from their forthcoming books, to the accompaniment of music by members of Sebadoh and the Black Cat Orchestra. Clear Cut leans toward the experimental in fiction.

Bumbershoot literary events preview Today-Sunday, Seattle Center (206-281-7788 or www.bumbershoot.org).

Saturday

Paul Loeb, Starbucks Literary Stage, noon: The Seattle writer-activist ("Soul of a Citizen") discusses his new anthology, "The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear," featuring contributions by Diane Ackerman, Nelson Mandela, Václav Havel, Sherman Alexie, Tony Kushner and dozens of other writers and politicians.

	Seattle's Doug Nufer, above, and Canada's Bill Bissett will read at 3:45 p.m. tomorrow.

"History and How-To of Zines," Living Room Stage, 1 p.m.: The Independent Publishing Resource Center, from Portland, Ore., will conduct a workshop covering both the history of zine publishing and some hands-on specifics on how to lay out your own zine page.

"Voices in Wartime," Bagley Wright Theatre, 2:30 p.m.: Andrew Himes, executive producer of the documentary "Poetry in Wartime" (directed by Rick King) will show clips from the film. Himes will also moderate a panel discussion about it, featuring poets Chris Abani, Sinan Antoon and Emily Warn, and psychiatrist Jonathan Shay, all of whom took part in the project.

Doug Nufer, Starbucks Literary Stage, 3:45 p.m.: A fixture on the local spoken-word scene, this Seattle writer had three novels published this summer, each with a different publisher. Nufer likes to experiment with constraints in form — no single word is repeated in "Never Again," and a negative ("un-," "dis-," etc.) appears in every sentence in "Negativeland" (except in one significant passage). Nufer reads with "Blakeian" Canadian poet Bill Bissett.

Sunday

Krist Novoselic, Starbucks Literary Stage, noon: The political activist (and former bassist for Nirvana) discusses his new book, "Of Grunge and Government: Let's Fix This Broken Democracy!" As Johnny Rotten once sang, or rather snarled, "We mean it, man!"

	DANIEL MORRIS / FAT YETI PHOTOGRAPHY Stacey Levine and fellow Clear Cut Press writers Matt Briggs and Charles D'Ambrosio will read from their forthcoming books at 8:30 tonight.

"Manga Madness," Living Room Stage, 1 p.m.: The artists of Japan's NDP Comics will be the guests of honor at this workshop, in which some of the basic elements of the animelike Japanese comic-book style will be taught.

"Indie Comics and Graphic Novels," Bagley Wright Theatre, 8 p.m.: Gary Groth, the founder-publisher of Seattle's Fantagraphics publishing house, moderates a talk about the graphic novel, with some giants in the field taking part, including Harvey Pekar ("American Splendor"), Seattleite Peter Bagge ("Hate") and Gilbert Hernandez ("Love and Rockets").

Monday

Harvey Pekar, Bagley Wright Theatre, 1 p.m.: The creator of "American Splendor," a comic-book epic about Pekar's life in Cleveland, recently found his life transformed into a film of the same name, nominated for a best-screenplay Oscar — and featuring both the real Pekar and an actor (Paul Giamatti) playing him. It's the real Pekar, one assumes, who will be turning up at Bumbershoot.

Jonathan Raban, Starbucks Literary Stage, 4:45 p.m.: The Seattle-based English writer, best known for his nonfiction ("Coasting," "Bad Land"), recently delivered a novel, "Waxwings," that got in some droll detail on 1990s Seattle's dot-com delirium and dread. "Waxwings" is due out in paperback at the end of the month.

Ursula Hegi, Bagley Wright Theatre, 8:15 p.m.: The German-American novelist ("Sacred Time," "Stones from a River"), who for a number of years taught creative writing at Eastern Washington University, comes to town to read from her work. Hegi now lives in New York.

Michael Upchurch: mupchurch@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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